Saturday 28 November 2009

6E 310


6E 310

Time 5:00 AM
Pragathi Nagar, Hyderabad
I woke up early today, not with same peace that I wake up normally with. I slept with excitement in my mind and when I woke up, a feeling of tense and uneasiness added to that excitement. I was at my cousin's house and the time the level of this excitement reaches its peak was 4 hours and 30 minutes away.


Time 6:30 AM
JNTU, Hyderabad
I took my shower and got ready very slowly with out observing the time. When I noticed that it was already 6 AM, I started doing things in a hurry. I stepped out of my cousin's house very soon with a medium sized trolley suitcase and reached JNTU to catch the shuttle bus that is scheduled to start around 6.25 AM. I was just on time and it looked as if the bus driver was waiting for me. It was not a bus actually but a mini van and a few people were already in the bus. They stared at me when I boarded the bus and there was a clear message in those eyes "you stopped our bus and kept us waiting for 5min". My ego said "Cant they wait for 5min so that I will buy the ticket, tender the exact change to conductor and board the bus? No mistake from my side even though they look like that". The bus started while I took my seat near the window. Generally I will sleep or at least take short nap if I am going to travel for an hour and it is frequent that I will do this in morning times. But, my eyes were wide open today. No trace of dizziness.
Time 8:20 AM
Café Coffee Shop, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad
I reached airport at 7.20AM and had been waiting there for both the flight and my friend who was going to meet me. I ordered a cappuccino for my self and called my friend to tell the location of our meet.
He came along with his family at 8:20 AM. Interesting point was that I met him personally for the first time.
Time 8.30 AM
Departure Terminal, RGIA
Yes, it's the departure terminal. And for the first time, I was going to board into an aero plane. No matter it's a domestic travel, I was going to travel by air. I was so much excited with a feeling of fear and tense as well. My friend, who accompanied me, was also taking the flight for the first time. We took suggestions from all the people who travelled by flight earlier and the process that had to be followed before boarding the flight. So we completed the theory part and ready for practical. We straight away went into the queue where we were issued boarding pass individually. Although it was necessary to have a quick check of details that were there on the boarding pass, I observed it for 5-7 minutes. I double checked everything and also bothered the ticket staff with my silly questions. Finally, I took the boarding pass and a picture of it too. And also I understood the place where we drop off the luggage other than hand bags is at the boarding pass counter itself. Wow..great findings.
I could see the hand baggage scan 50ft away from me. We went there and in few minutes the luggage scan was done. That's it!! Ready to board the flight. But still there was some time and we took a dosa for Rs 85 at Indian Paradise!!!


Time was running out very fast and we were now on our way the designated departure gate.


There was a direct tunnel like stand way into the flight (I don't know what that is called) and the excitement of my first flight travel made me walk quickly through it. I was on my feet in those moments.


A final check of boarding pass and the air hostess, who were looking, and dressed, pretty good, said "Hello, Good Morning".







Mine was a window seat and the right wing of the plane was seen outside the window. The excitement of entering the flight had lessened a bit but a new child of that started. The Take-Off Excitement!!

Time: 9.30 AM

Inside the flight 6E 310 on Land, Speed 10 KMPH

The air hostess and the captain were explaining about the safety precautions to be taken before the take-off. The flight slowly started to move towards the runway. I felt as if we were in an ac coach attached to a 2-bull cart. The plane stopped and outside the window, it was the run way. Suddenly the plane started, with high pick up speed that I waa forced to sit back. And it moved like a 150KMPH moving car and as if a high speed rocket engine was fixed to each bull. There were vibrations all over because of high speed road travel. In a split of a second, the plan tilted making an angle with the land and was already into the air. The land, roads and building started to look small from the window. My ears were closing because of changing height and in a few minutes the plane was at a good height. The land, building and routes below were visible like topping over a pizza.

Time 10.15 AM
Inside 6E 310, Approx 25 KM above sea level

The travel was smooth. Suddenly there were some shakes some times and I was looking down all the time from the window. I was curiously waiting for the plane to go above the clouds so that when I see down, it would look like a white rugged paper. Unfortunately, it was a very bright sunny day with a very low density of white clouds. The captain announced that we were going at 870 KMPH, 25KM above sea level and would reach Delhi approximately in another 90 minutes. Wow!! 870 KMPH and we had a feeling that we were hardly moving.

Time was around 11 AM and it's the time, I was on an ocean of clouds. A beautiful scenery outside and the camera grabbed it very decently. For some time, I was in a feeling that the plane was travelling on an ocean of milk. And far away, the blue sky appears to be meeting that ocean. It was wonderful natural scenery one should see in their life time.





Time 11.45 AM

Inside 6E 310, in air over Delhi

There was some delay for landing the flight because of unavailability of the run way and the flight was roaming in circles over the national capital.



There was an announcement again that the flight was going to land. Again the excitement started and this time, it's the excitement of plane landing. Slowly the objects on the ground were growing in size and the 3rd dimension of the objects was then visible. As the plane decreased its altitude, it was then I came to know the speed with which we were travelling. It was then possible for assessing that because we could compare the moving plane speed with that of static land very clearly (Relative Speed, a bit of physics too..).


I was seeing the airport and the plane landed on the run way. The wheels of the plane touched the run way, bounced in to air and landed again. I was frightened because of the vibrations and shakes that we felt during the landing. But it was a safe landing and again the rocket engines of the bulls are removed. The plane moved slowly towards the arrival terminal.

Overall it was a very nice experience and the excitement was not there when I came back from Delhi to Hyderabad. First flight experience should always be documented ;-).